Snap Shots: Details & Point of View
Purpose of Exercise: Fosters creative exploration of point of view, detailed description, and narrative as individuals and collaboratively. Good for a short story or personal essay assignment.
Description: You will need 5 - 13 interesting photographs or stills for your students to work with. This exercise allows students to take a point of view and create a context for it. They then give the pictures purpose in relation to the context they have created. It forces them to bounce ideas off one another in small groups, and to create a plausible start for a fictional work using a point of view other than the personal "I".
Suggested Time: 20 minutes to a full class period
Procedure: Place students in groups of two, giving each group one picture between them. Separately, each student decides the camera’s point of view, creating a character for that point of view.
Telling:
Who he/she is- include physical description and other pertinent information.
Where he/she is.
Why he/she is there- what is the significance of the setting.
With relevance to this character, find an object in the picture that serves as important to the camera person. Describe what it is and why it is important.
Coming back into the groups of two, now take each student’s point of view, including its contextual information, and develop a "lead-in" (a paragraph) for a novel, short story, poem, or essay. If there’s time, have each group share with the class and perhaps use this forum to point out effective details, etc.
You may also choose to do this exercise by projecting up to 5 snap shots on the overhead. Give the class 5+ minutes to construct a “lead in” for each photo, being sure to address the 4 elements above. Take time to discuss as a class.